36 KITCHEN-GARDENING. 



from weeds, they -svill be large eiiougli to transplant when a 

 year old. Some keep them in the nursery-bed until they are 

 two years old. 



If the beds are properly dressed every year, they will pro- 

 duce well for twenty years or more. New beds may be made 

 in autumn, or before the buds get far advanced in spring — say 

 in February, March, or April, according to situation and cir- 

 cumstances. The ground for the bed must not be wet, nor 

 too strong or stubborn, but such as is moderately light and 

 pliable, so that it will readily fall to pieces in digging or 

 raking, and in a situation that enjoys the full rays of the sun. 

 It should have a large supply of well-rotted dung, three or four 

 inches thick, and then be regularly trenched two spades deep, 

 and the dung buried equally in each trench twelve or fifteen 

 inches below the surface. When this trenching is done, lay 

 two or three inches of thoroughly-rotted manure over the 

 whole surfece, and dig the ground over again, eight or ten 

 inches deep, mixing this top dressing, and incorporating it 

 well with the earth. 



ARRANGING THE YOUNG PLANTS. 



In family gardens, it is customary to divide the ground thus 

 prepared into beds, allowing four feet for every four rows of 

 plants, with alleys two feet and a half wide between each bed. 

 Strain your line along the bed six inches from the edge ; then 

 with a spade cut out a small trench or drill close to the line, 

 about six inches deep, making that side next the line nearly 

 upright; when one trench is opened, plant that before you 

 open another, placing the plants upright ten or twelve inches 

 distant in the row^, and let every row be twelve inches apart. 



The plants must not be placed flat in the bottom of the 

 trench, but nearly upright against the back of it, and so that 

 the crown of the plants may also stand upright, and two or 

 three inches below the surface of the ground, spreading their 

 roots somewhat regularly against the back of the trench, and 

 at the same time drawing a little earth up against them with 



